The Art Scene: 02.06.14

Yektai at Tripoli
“Two Weeks in Umbria,” an exhibition of 25 new paintings by Darius Yektai, will be on view at the Tripoli Gallery in Southampton from Saturday through March 17. The paintings were made last summer during Mr. Yektai’s 14-day stay in Montecastello di Vibio, a medieval fortress town.

Most of the relatively small works were painted en plein air, sometimes as many as five or six each day. Mr. Yektai, who lives in Bridgehampton and New York City, observed that in Umbria, “Fields lay on top of each other like bricks and mortar, so when you look at the landscape, there’s a brickwork pattern. The landscape lends itself to abstraction.”

An opening reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

Photography at Ashawagh
An exhibition of work by members of the East End Photographers Group will be on view this weekend at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. Curated by Marilyn Stevenson, a Southampton resident, the show is hosted by the Hasselblad Corporation. Greg Hollmann, an E.E.P.G. member and Hasselblad representative, will conduct informal demonstrations of the latest Hasselblad camera and Broncolor lighting products.

The exhibition, which will include traditional, digital, and alternative photographic processes, will be open Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., with a reception Saturday from 5 to 8.

Ray Parker Paintings
In New York
Paintings from the 1980s by Ray Parker, who had a house in East Hampton from 1974 until his death in 1990, are on view at the Washburn Gallery in Manhattan through March 22.

Parker moved to New York in the early 1950s and by the end of that decade had developed a distinctive style marked by large shapes of color hovering on neutral backgrounds. Those works placed him among the “color field” Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.

The paintings in the Washburn exhibition, which reflect the development of his style in the late 1970s and 1980s, retain the discreet, irregular areas of color but include narrow, irregular lines that cross the canvases like trails.

An opening reception will take place this evening from 6 to 8.

Connie Fox Work to Parrish
“City Fair,” a painting by Connie Fox, a longtime East Hampton resident, has been donated to the Parrish Art Museum by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. The gift is part of the Academy’s purchase program, begun in 1946, that places the works of living American artists in museums across the country.

“We are very pleased to have this important work by one of the leading artists living and working on the East End today,” said Alicia Longwell, the Parrish’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman chief curator of art and education.

“Alicia Longwell and the Parrish have been very supportive of local artists,” Ms. Fox said, “so I was delighted the piece could end up in their collection.” The gift brings to four the number of works by Ms. Fox among the museum’s holdings.

Michael Combs in Cincinnati
“Wild Card: The Art of Michael Combs,” a 15-year survey of work by the sculptor, is on view at 21c Museum in Cincinnati through June. Mr. Combs, who comes from a North Fork family of hunters, fishermen, boat builders, and decoy makers, has created a body of work informed in both content and technique by those pastimes.

Using hand-carved linden wood along with other materials, he explores man’s competitive nature and need for validation through such endeavors as hunting and sports with a combination of skilled craftsmanship and witty inventiveness. In addition to his sculptures, Mr. Combs has created installations, among them “The Trophy Room,” which was shown at the Parrish Art Museum in 2005.

Solar Gallery on the Road
Esperanza Leon, proprietor of Solar in East Hampton, has curated “Contemporary Landscapes and Other Fantasies,” an exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photographs, and video, at Plum Builders’ newest Modern Barn house.